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Saturday, 24 January 2015

At Davos
2015 the president of Imperial College Alice Gast postulated that there was pressure from business in the application of sound business practices to
universities and other public services.

This resonates in the UK with the next General
Election on the horizon.

For example
:-Which parties care for and manage best the National Health service NHS ?

But business practice is also
being applied to institutions such as the established Church of England whose current Archbishop of Canterbury ( a former
Oil Executive) and has commissioned a report on the Church written by Lord
Green ( a former Chief executive of HSBC bank and McKinsey consultant.)

Professor Gast said that she wanted to turn
the tables and suggest that a scientific mind-set can inform and benefit the
decision-making process outside of the laboratory.

She also
argued that by adopting the mind-set of a scientist this could help all of us
approach a changing world.

“We should
embed a scientific mindset into business culture”

As a
distinguished scientist herself and co-author
of “Physical Chemistry of Surfaces “ a classic textbook on colloid and surface
phenomena, and she has presented named lectures at several of the nation's
leading research institutions she is worth listening to.

For myself,
whose first degree study in Chemistry with Business undertaken some 45 years
ago I have a vested interest in what she had to say.

How can the scientific
mindset help our Selling?

Because
selling involves a delicious mixture of the logical and emotional, science can
contribute.

I thought it
might be interesting to look at the professor’s presentation to Davos and from
the perspective of selling .

What would
adopting a scientific mindset in this way mean in the sales arena?

Let's consider her three scientific attributes but to “Selling”

1.Sceptical curiosity

2.Collaborative competitiveness

3.Confidence in the case of the unknown

1. Sceptical
curiosity

Scientists need to be sceptical. Like their
colleagues in selling, and they also must innovate. As they innovate,
scientists strike a careful balance between curiosity, intuition and
scepticism. For those practising selling these three aspects are a daily work.

Salespeople
need to be curious how else will we find out the needs and wants of our client ?.

We need to tune into our gut instinct and what we have learned
from experience but also not believe everything we are told. ( Customers like
salespeople can exaggerate things and because we are all human, sometimes even lie !)

Science is
driven forwards by curiosity, and it is guided by intuition and prior
knowledge, but techniques such as external and internal peer reviews and
randomized control trials are also embedded in their way of thinking to avoid
blind optimism and bias.﻿
﻿﻿

An executive from Nestle Corporation speaking at

the International conference of Tack International

an example of Gast's Sceptical curiosity in action

- letting your customer speak to your sales team -

genuine LIVE Voice of the customer !

How we apply apply it in
selling :

In your organisation, invite sceptics and
non-experts in.

Some already
invite themselves in of course, most disciplines have an opinion
about sales ( not always complimentary ).

Someone in a
different field or organisation could have the key to unlocking the problem
they are working on. When the problems get tough, scientists want to build the
best team, even if the partner is a fierce competitor.

Prof Gast illustrated the point

"At one time, collaboration and data sharing
were the purview of “big science”, such as the scientists at CERN. Now we see
new collaborations all the time when it is opportune to bring together diverse
teams such as at the Crick Institute or in complex areas such as climate change
or public health for an ageing population."

How we might
apply it to selling :

Look at
those sales problems and opportunities in your business or organisation that cannot
be solved in isolation.

Prof Gast suggested at Davos areas such as cyber security, global political
and economic forces, or significant technological requirements, all benefit
from collaboration across the industry and across sectors. These are also relevant to many in Selling along with PESTLE factors from the marketing model.

When
corporations come together, as they do at Davos, they can make important things
happen. Bringing together industry, government and higher education can be even
more powerful.

Similarly when sales professionals attend their
institutions like the CIM or ISMM or IOD they can make important things happen.
They enable to bring together industry, government and higher education and can be even more powerful.

Sales people
should collaborate like a scientist. Some do of course but more should.

In selling
we have become aware of our modern business world by the acronym VUCA (
Volatile Uncertain Complex and Ambiguous)

The scientist’s business is the unknown.

Where something is unknown, it is an
opportunity to be pursued rather than avoided.

This
requires the ability to deal with ambiguity and uncertainty, which most people
find difficult.

In a scientific experiment, a lack of correlation
moves science forward as much as a positive correlation.

﻿
﻿﻿

VUCA Volatility ,Uncertainty, Complexity and AmbiguityPhoto of Slide from Impact International

No information is ever complete.

Scientists
are comfortable with moving forward purposefully when faced with incomplete or
problematic data sets.

How might apply
it in Selling ? :Break down problems into smaller hypotheses to be tested. ( An elephant can only beat eaten in bite-sized pieces)

A complex
sales situation e.g. preparing for a pitch at a competitive “beauty parade”where buyer’s have deliberately not fully revealed all the
information either as negotiating ploy, or because they don’t know themselves but are using your pitch to help them discover the
more about the nature of the issue.

To quote Prof. Gast "Evaluate
probabilities and the interrelation between factors affecting probability and
move forward armed with that imperfect knowledge. "This all sounds so similar to the challenging world of sales forecasting , pipeline management and assessing the risk ( or doing it anyway !)

Like the scientists , professional salespeople need to build a team
that can deal with uncertainty and ambiguity by sharing their understanding and
gaining confidence.Good Selling and Good "Sciencing" ! Related Links

Thursday, 22 January 2015

Fine Little Bogdan, but you need to Plan and set your selling objectivesWhat decisions are you after? What information do you need to find out?Who has the budget, authority, influence and need?

Research at the individual, local and global levels That's why it's worth listening and watching the presentations at WEF Davos 2015 ( scroll down for link below.)Who are your customers' customers? What is their market about? Who are their competitors ?...

﻿

Interest your client. Question them and above all LISTEN to them. Match their needs and wants with your offering, Handle and Answer their objections

Negotiate what is of value to them and less cost to you

Ask for the decision. Keep developing the business.And don't forget to thank them for their business ! Simples

employees were 26% more satisfied in their roles
when they had positions of power.

The researchers also found that feelings of power also
translated to more authenticity and feelings of well-being.

Power made the subjects feel more “true to themselves,”
enabling them to engage in actions that authentically reflected values
they hold dear.

This subjective sense of authenticity in turn created a
higher sense of wellbeing and happiness.

Drawing on personality and power research, Yona Kiferl and
colleagues suggested that holding a position of authority might enhance subjective
well-being through an increased feeling of authenticity.

The researchers predicted that because the powerful are able
to

“navigate their lives in congruence with their internal
desires and inclinations,” they feel as if they are acting more authentically —
more “themselves” — and thus are more content.

The findings were published in Psychological Science, a
journal of the Association for Psychological Science. 2013

In their first experiment, the researchers surveyed over 350
participants to determine if Internal feelings of power are associated with
subjective well-being in different contexts: 1. at work, 2. with friends, or 3. in
romantic relationships.

The results indicated that people who feel powerful in any
context tend to be more content.

The most powerful people surveyed felt 16% more satisfied
with their lives than the least powerful people.

This effect was most pronounced in the workplace:

Powerful employees were 26% more satisfied with their jobs
than their powerless colleagues.

The power-based discrepancy in happiness was smaller for
friendships and romantic relationships.

The researchers suggest that this may be because friendships
are associated with a sense of community rather than hierarchy, and therefore
having power in this kind of relationship is less important.

Causal relationships in power, authenticity and wellbeing

In the second and third experiments, Kifer and colleagues
examined the causal relationship between

a. power,

b. feelings of authenticity,

c. general well-being,

by manipulating each of the factors independently.

The results revealed that being in a position of power
causes people to feel more authentic and “true to themselves” — that is, it
allows their actions to more closely reflect their beliefs and desires.

Feelings of authenticity, in turn, enhance subjective
feelings of well-being and happiness.

“By leading people to be true to their desires and
inclinations — to be authentic — power lead individuals to experience greater happiness,” the
researchers conclude.

Kifer and colleagues propose that future research into power
dynamics, happiness, and authenticity should focus on specific kinds of power, both
positive (such as charisma) and negative (such as punishment).

Together, these findings suggest that even the perception of
having power can lead people to live more authentic lives, thereby
increasing their happiness and well-being.

Co-authors on this research include Daniel Heller of Tel
Aviv University, Wei Qi Elaine Perunovic of University of New Brunswick, and Adam Galinsky
of Columbia Business School.

The 'Feeling of Power' - productive, performing and pleased

Research has shown that helping others feel more powerful
can boost productivity, improve performance, and leave employees feeling
more satisfied on the job. A study conducted by Yona Kifer of Tel Aviv University and published in
Psychological Science found that employees were 26% more satisfied in their roles when they
had positions of power.

Feelings of power also translated to more authenticity and
feelings of well-being, the Researchers found.

Power made the subjects feel more “true to themselves,”
enabling them to engage in actions that authentically reflected values
they hold dear. This subjective sense of authenticity in turn created a
higher sense of wellbeing and happiness.

Yet Gallup research has found that typically 70% of
American workers aren’t engaged or committed to their employers. Gallup
estimates the cost of their apathy at between $450 billion to $550 billion in lost productivity per year.

I reckon those workers aren’t feeling all that powerful.

While it would be great to think we could just repeat a
mantra each morning to facilitate these well being -enhancing feelings of power,
another global study conducted by Gallup found that among some
600,000 workers across several industries,

leadership support,

recognition,

constant communication,

and trust

were essential to creating a thriving environment where
front-line employees felt they had the autonomy to make a real difference in the organization.
In other words, to instil a sense of power , people for sustained engagement you need the
support of the entire system.

The Importance of Buy-In

By contrast, overly structured management-driven empowerment
programmes that are coupled with continuous improvement initiatives don’t work,
according to researchers from the University of Illinois, as employees
tend to feel such programs are often ‘ forced upon them’ without their
input on the initiatives’ usefulness.

Instead, the researchers found that even the least powerful
employees will commit to finding ways to make their organisation more efficient
if given the autonomy to make decisions and execute the improvement
measures they find most useful.

Sales Managers are advised to act more as coaches, giving
direction and support, and trusting that front line salespeople, who are the experts on
the ground, know better which improvements ultimately work in the best interest of the
organisation.

The study, by Gopesh Anand, Dilip Chhajed, and Luis Delfin,
shows that employees will be most committed to the organisation when they
feel their day-to-day work environment is autonomous and when they trust leaders to have their
back.

These feelings of power and the reciprocal trust
in leadership in turn lead to proactive behaviours by
front line salespeople, as they’re likely to take charge in continuously
seeking ways to improve their day-to-day work practices that lead to
organisational efficiency.

While a company-wide effort of making employees feel
autonomous and trusted yields the greatest benefit in employee commitment, managers can start
with their own team members.

Encouraging others to

share their unvarnished views on important issues,

delegating

and sharing leadership,

assigning managerial tasks,

communicating frequently,

and allowing for mistakes to serve as learning
opportunities can all empower employees and develop them into independent
thinkers who aren’t afraid to take risks and actively contribute in moving
the organisation forward.

It isn’t necessary, or indeed possible, to elevate every
member of the sales team to a Leadership position.

But a good sales manager can offer choices that lead
to empowerment, no title required.

While we know that people instinctively crave higher status,
M. Ena Inesi of London Business School discovered that agency is just as important.

She primed study participants to feel either powerful or
powerless.

They then had to choose whether to shop at a nearby store
with fewer options, or a store that was further away but which offered considerably more
options. When participants felt powerless, they craved more choices.

The participants who felt powerful, however, were content
to have fewer choices.

“You can imagine a person at an organisation who’s in a
low- level job,” Inesi said at the time.

“You can make that seemingly
powerless person feel better about their job and their duties by giving
them some choice, in the way they do the work or what project they work
on.”

The dangers of Learned Helplessness

People need to believe they have a sense of control over
their situation, particularly in times of change and uncertainty, or they may
adopt what psychologist Martin Seligman at the University of
Pennsylvania termed “learned helplessness,” where they basically stop trying.

In a similar vein, Harvard psychology professor Ellen Langer
conducted research on mindfulness and ‘choice’ and found that giving people
choices over their environment actually extended life by years, according to her studies
conducted among the elderly in nursing homes.

I believe a strong contender must be in those very special folkProfessional Mime artists !

Each year Itreat myself in the
first two weeks of Januarytoa performance in the London International Mime Festival
season . This is fun Continual Professional Development CPD with a capital F.

How many salespeople
could sell their products let alone hold the attention of a buying panel
through mime for an hour or two as these do with their audiences ?﻿﻿﻿﻿

﻿

Trapeze in the Circus Ronaldo on the LIMF programme

LIFM now in its 38th yearpromotes cutting-edge circus, adult
puppetry, live art and physical theatre.

This year I went to see Circus Ronaldo from Belgium.The company is a family concern in keeping
with the romantic circus and travelling
theatre tradition

For their LIMF performance they set up on the stage of the
Queen Elisabeth Hall on London’s Southbank.

The company include artists who not only have
theatre and circus skills but also play musical instruments, sing and have
puppetry skills. So for those salespeople familiar with the communication
channels of Words , Music and Dance ( WMD)Circus Ronaldo are the practitioners with the full set of WMDLearning by observing the skills and craft of another profession, namely Circus/theatre is a good way to review one's own communication skills in business.

In the after show discussion a large number of the audience stayed to ask questions and learn of the history of this family business who trace their roots back several generations. Danny Ronaldo (left in the photo) not only revealed that much of their craft has become a DNA of circus /theatre but probing a little detail he talked also of the roots of

Commedia dell’arte.

Back in 16th Century Italy the roots of the clown can be
identified.

To distinguish the form from commedia erudita or learned
comedy that was written by academics and performed by amateurs.

Commedia
dell'arte , was performed by professional actors (comici) who perfected a
specific role or mask.

To me this resonated as the contrast between studying
Selling at a college, training programme or reading a book and practicing the
craft.

Of course in our 21st century one can study both selling and
Circus Crafts at University. Indeed at the Festival they also hold Week long to
One day workshops .

In the legacy of Commedia dell'Arte, also known as
"Italian comedy,"whose humorous theatrical presentation performed by
professional players who travelled in troupes throughout Italy in the 16th
century Circus Ronaldo tours.

Often today we talk of ‘standing on the shoulders’
of predecessors but of course this family have literally learnt from father to
son , from generation to generation in circus skills like acrobats, tight rope walkers, jugglers, clowning.We use the expression 'high flyer' rather too glibly perhaps, forgetting its hard earned origins of the high wire. ( Go and see the Cirque de Soleil at the Royal Albert Hall at present)

Performances in 16th century Italy took place on temporary stages, mostly on city
streets, but occasionally in court venues. Similalry Cirus Ronaldo used their family demountable theatre.

﻿

I know it's a bit obsessive to scribble notes on the programme sheet, but there is so much to learn from these master artistes

﻿Music, dance, witty dialogue, and all kinds of chicanery
contributed to the comic effects. Subsequently the art form spread throughout
Europe, with many of its elements persisting into present-day theatre.

Back in 16th Century the most notable
troupessuch as the Gelosi, Confidenti,
and Fedeli became internationally famous. Music, dance, witty dialogue, and all
kinds of chicanery contributed to the comic effects of Circus Ronaldo's 'Amortale 'which brought together tragedy and clowning, opera, string puppets, slapstick and melancholy circus and simplicity and not a little hilarious anarchy.

Apparently, there was no attempt made to change the
performance's dialect from region to region. Even when a local company performed,
much of the dialogue would not have been understood. Regardless of region, il
Capitano would have spoken in Spanish, il Dottore in Bolognese, and
l'Arlecchino in utter gibberish. The focus was placed on physical business
rather than on spoken text.

Similalry Circus Ronaldo do use some Italian and a few
bits of English in the London show but
mainly it is throughphysical theatre .

Three characters from the Circus Ronaldo “ Amortale” show could be identified from the
Commedia dell ArteWho make up what
Danny Ronaldothe “eternal triangle” of
the ‘master and two servants” One very stupid servant and one smarter.I think he was probably referring to

Whilst we in professional selling use the work of twentieth century psychology
on personality types to help us communicate and work better with clients in
systems such as MBTI, DISC or the Big
Five, maybethe500 year old pedigree of Commedia Dell arte
still can teach us when we go to enjoy the circus.

The London International Festival of Mime’s 2015 season continues
next week.

Above are just a collection of headlines in the media about mis-selling. The financial institutions have to sort out and fix the problem much like handling and resolving a complaint anyone in selling is familiar with.

But what if it is in the
case of a state owned or part taxpayer funded enterprise?
The current mis-selling story doing the rounds is about RBS ( 80% owned by the UK tax payer) in their mis-selling of Enterprise Finance GuaranteeEFG .

The Scotsman today reported Colin
Borland, the Federation of Small Businesses’ head of external affairs in
Scotland, said: “It is disappointing to see another mis-selling episode
involving small businesses and the banks. RBS needs to move quickly to take
care of these small business customers.”

RBS has admitted that some of its customers were incorrectly told that the tax payer guarantee was for their benefit (e.g. small businesses’ benefit) rather than for the bank.

In certain cases only when the EFGcustomer defaulted did the business owner discover that they remained liable for the entire outstanding loan.

Perhaps we have a right to ask Business Secretary Vince Cable and his team regarding the EFG scandal to investigate on our behalf areas such as

1.Whatare ( were) the board of the lender's responsibility and commitment to Selling EFG , their responsibility for setting of targets, their responsibility for design of incentives, bonuses and commission (as well as the salespeople responsible ( Relationship managers) who carried out the directions of the board)

2.Selling ethics – Did Self regulation in this case work?, Was Best practice, best advice given? What is the role of regulators and government on critical points of a selling offer?

3.What wasthe quality of training, how was it measured andhow was it monitored?

The Times of London implied a connection with the departure of The deputy Chief executive who left on Dec 31st

An “Accountability Review” is being lead by head of commercial banking and private banking for RBS Alison Rose. She is quoted as saying in James Hurley’s Times article 15th January

“Our Relationship Managers ( RBS Salespeople) were not clear enough on explaining the liability issue which is critical to customers” head of commercial banking and private banking for RBS, Alison Rose

In view of the importance the head of commercial banking and private banking for the lender places on this issue which is critical to customers we might well seek some clarification on these questions:-

1.Was this liability issue, which is critical to customers, included in the sales/product training ? Did the senior management identify this liability point in their Training Needs Analysis ?

2.Was the liability issue, which is critical to customers,stressed in the course content design and commissioning ?

3.If it was – how was liability issue ,which is critical to customers ,actually trained ?Did the training manuals stress ,with examples, how important this liability issue which is critical to customers?

4.Who signed off the training manual content ?

5.What skills practice was undertaken on the liability issue which is critical to customersWas it merely lecture input, ordemonstrated with specific examples, oractively role played by the delegate Relationship Managers ?

6.What post training course field coaching and monitoring was undertaken to ensure this liability issue, which is critical to customers, was communicated clearly to client prospects?

* There are fortunately over 500 posts published on this site about Good Selling

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About Me

I have been a training consultant for 30 years.
I also research Buyers Views of Sales people for an ongoing research study I have done for the last twelve years
The majority of photographs, videos and audios in this blog are taken on my new Fujifilm Fine pix T from May 2012 The Pencil Sketches are mine also